2/7/10
Exuberant Animals
Here is another post borrowed from Maureen Freehill's MomoButoh blog. To see, read and enjoy more of her daily Butoh practice, visit her blog:
http://maureenfreehill.blogspot.com/2010/02/exuberant-animals.html
Barefoot Bard, Barefoot Sensei Mick Dodge, Walking Mountain Yoga, Training with the Elements, Exuberant Animal
Training, No Child Left Inside! check out these links for awesome body training for health & fitness in direct connection with earth and
community.
Training, No Child Left Inside! check out these links for awesome body training for health & fitness in direct connection with earth and
community.
Health and Exuberance Prescription to Take Daily:
Vigorous Physical Activity --- Real Food & Pure Water --- Outdoor Exposure in Nature --- Quality Sleep & Rest --- Positive Social Experience
---
Play and Good Humor --- Meaningful Engagement with the World -from the short form pamphlet for Exuberant Animal Movement
---
Play and Good Humor --- Meaningful Engagement with the World -from the short form pamphlet for Exuberant Animal Movement
I met this amazing exuberant animal of a man yesterday hanging upside down by a strap from a picnic shelter on the beach. A friend of his had watched my daily dance with the newspaper on the beach and said it reminded her of the "Barefoot Bard" named Mick who I had to meet. Well, it was true. I was stunned by the liveliness and kinship I immediately shared with this passionate fellow. He quickly introduced and articulated an entire program of fitness training that centers around connection with the elements of nature as playmates and guides. It is always done barefoot and outdoors with simple objects like sticks and stones that can be found and made most anywhere. He also designs and makes these objects and special non-shoe barefoot coverings and leads trainings in this work. I felt I had stumbled upon a very familiar and somewhat more yang/active/masculine form of my daily dance practice. This system goes by a number of names. The pamphlets he handed me were from a Seattle based loose organization of trainers called "Exuberant Animal." It made more sense and inspired me more than any fitness program I have ever heard of. Other titles of his work include Walking Mountain Yoga where he takes trainees out into the clear cuts of the Hoh Rainforest and they interact with the stumps, logs, sticks and trees as teachers. They also do tree planting and forest restoration projects as training too. Neat!
I love the entire premise and practice of this work. It is a way to achieve physical vitality, lots of fun AND meaningful engagement with the natural world. They call it "proven countermeasures to the challenge of the modern world." It is unique also because along with training the traditional Body, Mind, Spirit, they include equally important training with the Land, Ancestors and Tribe. Wonderful! One of my favorite parts of the propaganda he gave me is the logo that graphically represents the purpose of this work as an infinity
symbol path. It traverses from the wilderness of the mountain through the village of community in the center and into the city of technology/culture/commerce and back again. It included ALL aspects our
current earth system in one gracefully simple balanced and dynamic image.
symbol path. It traverses from the wilderness of the mountain through the village of community in the center and into the city of technology/culture/commerce and back again. It included ALL aspects our
current earth system in one gracefully simple balanced and dynamic image.
So, my daily dance today was to take the paper "menu" he had given me with the basic "Short Form" of the Exuberant Animal daily movement practice for "vitality and physical happiness." Before I looked at it, I handed it over to my friend to read aloud the instructions as he filmed my spontaneous responses to the cues. It was a super fun game and the way I interpreted some of the instructions turned out to be quite different from the diagrams on the page. This is another thing I love about this system--like butoh, it is totally flexible, playful and responsive to who, when, where and what is available at the moment. Really, the best way to tell about this whole movement is to show the videos. Below are three from Mick and Walking Mountain and my own playful interpretation with thanks to AL for filming and directions. Enjoy!
Today's Question: How do you train and get fit? Do include your local tribe, ancestors and land as part of your fitness routine? How?
http://maureenfreehill.blogspot.com/2010/02/exuberant-animals.html
Comments